Nucleonic-resolution optical mass sensor based on a graphene nanoribbon quantum dot

Abstract

The high frequency and ultrasmall mass of graphene make it an ideal material for ultrasensitive mass sensing. In this article, based on the all-optical technique, we propose a scheme of an optical mass sensor to weigh the mass of a single atom or molecule via a doubly clamped Z-shaped graphene nanoribbon (GNR). We use the detection of shifts in the resonance frequency of the Z-shaped GNR to determine the mass of an external particle landing on the GNR. The highly sensitive mass sensor proposed here can weigh particles down to the yoctogram and may eventually be enable to realize the mass measurement of nucleons.

Graphene-Based Nanoresonator with Applications in Optical Transistor and Mass Sensing

“…As the Z-shaped junction device can completely confine electronic states induced by the topological structure of the junction and by varying the length of the junction, the spatial confinement and the number of discrete levels are modified accordingly [ 34 , 41 ]. A two-level system with the ground state |g〉 and the first excited state (single exciton) | ex 〉 characterized by the pseudospin – 1/2 operator S z ( S ± ) is introduced to describe the exciton in the Z-shaped GNR [ 33 ], and the energy level is shown in Figure 1c . Therefore, the Hamiltonian of this localized two-level exciton can be described by H e = ħω e S z with the frequency ω e of the exciton.…”

“…In the optical read-out scheme, a laser beam is focused onto the free end of the resonator, and the reflection is monitored using a position-sensitive photodiode; while fabrication of the devices for piezoresistive read-out is more time-consuming. Recently, nanomechanical resonator-based mass sensors with the optical pump-probe scheme have been proposed in the all-optical domain [ 31 – 33 ]. However, the proposal still focuses on the linear optics regime, and the mass sensing schemes with nonlinear optics have received little attention until now.…”

“…Here, based on the GNR-optomechanical system, we propose nonlinear optical mass sensing. Compared with the mass sensing in the linear optics regime [ 33 ], the nonlinear optical mass sensing proposed here may be immune to detection noises (concrete elaborations are given later in the Discussions).…”

“…In this present article, we theoretically study and analyze the coherent optical properties of a graphene resonator based on a doubly-clamped Z-shaped GNR [ 33 , 34 ] with the optical pump-probe scheme [ 35 , 36 ]. We investigate the phenomenon of phonon-induced transparency (PIT) in the resonator system.…”

Cavity optomechanical spectroscopy constraints chameleon dark energy scenarios

“…These systems can also be of considerable technological for improved measurements of displacements [19], forces [20] and masses [21]. Recently, the optical pump-probe technique has become a popular topic, which affords an effective way to investigate the light-matter interaction.…”